Dance Fever studio comes to West Canon Perdido Street, Lily’s Nails opens on State Street and RRM Design Group announces new hires

Goleta resident Brian Termond has opened an auto-repair shop in downtown Santa Barbara, specializing in work on Mercedes vehicles. Autohaus is working on its first cars this week in the former home of Ben’s Transmission at 218 Palm Ave. (Gina Potthoff / Noozhawk photo)

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A Goleta couple has opened their own auto-repair shop in downtown Santa Barbara, hoping to create a niche in the local Mercedes market.

Autohaus began servicing its first vehicles this week at 218 Palm Ave., the former home of Ben’s Transmission, which vacated the space so its owner could go into retirement.

So far the operation is a one-man show starring owner Brian Termond, a mechanic who has lived locally for nearly 20 years. Termond was born, raised and professionally trained in Germany — where the car brand hails from — and has earned Master Guild technician status.

Termond wants to focus solely on Mercedes brands, and his wife, Emily, a local real estate agent, is pitching in with marketing.

“Everything that falls under the Mercedes umbrella,” Brian Termond said. “Now it’s just time to do my own thing. It’s always been a dream.”

The couple hopes to eventually hire more mechanics, and within six months most likely will expand into another building adjacent to the parking lot, which the former owner is preparing to leave.

Dance Fever Studio Open

A new dance studio specializing in social and competition ballroom dancing for folks of all ages has opened at 127 W. Canon Perdido St. in Santa Barbara.

Dance Fever Santa Barbara officially began offering classes in the space in July, according to founder and owner Anastasia Banderovskaya, who recently moved to the area.

She said the studio is offering a free first introductory dance lesson, and also offers wedding dance services and other styles for kids and adults.

Lily’s Nails Opens Downtown

Lily’s Nails salon opened this week at 1230 State St. in downtown Santa Barbara.

The salon is in Suite B, next door to Saigon Vietnamese Restaurant, which shares the same address in Suite A.

Local Design Firm Announces New Associates

RRM Design Group has named five new associates: Chris Dufour, Scott Hopkins, Lisa Plowman, Joshua Roberts and Michael Scott.

The Associates Program at RRM is designed to develop the abilities, skills and talent of the key leaders of RRM and propel the company forward to achieve the greatest possible success for our employees, clients and the environment.

Dufour is a senior landscape architect in RRM’s San Luis Obispo office; Hopkins is the assistant manager of architecture of RRM’s Santa Barbara office; Plowman is the planning manager in Santa Barbara; Roberts is a civil engineering project manager in San Luis Obispo; and Scott is a project manager of architecture San Luis Obispo.

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